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18 March 2015

ROW80 2015 Round 1 Wrap-up

This is the final week of ROW80 Round 1. Time to reflect back on my goals and report the overall progress for the round! Below you'll find my original goals in black, changes in red, and progress in blue.

Creative projects
I have SO MANY WRITING PROJECTS I want to get done this year: two novels, a collection of short stories, and 2 books of poetry. Because I still have not figured out how to clone myself, I must work within normal human parameters - for now - which means breaking it down into manageable chunks. This round I worked on a novel under my pseudonym (codename WIP1) and a collection of short speculative fiction stories under my own name (codename SF). Goals:
1) Finish drafting and editing WIP1. Beta draft of WIP1 complete, feedback received, and I'll be done with the next draft by the end of next week, at which point it goes to my line editors. Round 2 starts April 6th, so I'll still be finishing up this book.
2) Finish writing the 1st drafts of the stories for SF & begin to revise them. I finished first drafts of 3 more stories and made progress on a couple more, though they haven't reached first-draft status yet. I plan to work on one more first draft in the next round, but I'll be focusing mainly on my book of dream poems and my pseudonym's projects for the rest of the year.Blogging
Blog posts are good for built-in processing and reflecting time. They also help me connect with other writers and potential clients. Goals:
1) Min. 2 blog posts per week on this blog, including my weekly ROW80 update; other posts to include guest posts, interviews, and posts focused on coaching, editing and/or writing. For the most part I stuck with at least 2 posts a week. Finished out the guest post series on success as a writer and published a few posts related to coaching and editing. Will carry this goal into the next round.2) Min. 1 blog post per week on the pseudonym's blog. Decided to hold off on blog posts while I focused on getting some help with marketing and branding for the pseudonym. 3) Min. 1 post per month on the travel blog. Didn't have the motivation or energy to make this a priority, so chose to focus on other things instead.

Reading for fun
I added this goal last round and found it easy to meet and so rewarding that I did it again. My goal in this area was to read one book a week for fun, for a total of 11 books.

Community participation
One of the things that keeps me engaged in my writing and helps me avoid the descent into total lunacy is my connection to other writers. Goals:
1) Comment on 2-3 ROWers posts per week. Met. Will keep this goal in Round 2.
2) Participate in #writeclub on Twitter at least 1x a month. Not met. However, I did do writing sprints with Twitter buddies at other times, when I was in need of extra motivation. I think that's probably the approach that works best for me.
3) Find 2-3 blogs to follow related to writing/publishing. Met. Started following 3 writing/publishing blogs: Prolific Novelista, PubHub, and Rebecca Faith Editorial.

Social media
This round I wanted to spend more time interacting with people and using social media to share things of interest to writers aside from my blog posts. I also tried out a live #AskAnEditor Twitter conversation. Goals:
1) Spend half an hour on Twitter 3-4 times a week interacting with tweeps and tweeting about non-blog-post-related things. So-so. I spent at least 30 mins a week interacting with people. Will keep this goal for next round.
2) 2 FB posts per week not related to blog posts I've published. Exceeded. I think I can drop this goal in future; I'm already doing it without having to think about it.
3) Do a trial run of #AskAnEditor on Twitter. Met. I didn't get the participation I was hoping for, so I don't plan to do it again.

Editing/coaching
Begin to rebuild business to pre-Europe levels. To that end, in this round I focused on filling my coaching roster and acquiring two more editing jobs.

Accomplished:

Acquired 1 new coaching client and 3 editing jobs - yay!

Published several new blog posts related to coaching and editing.

Connected with another editor, with whom I'm forming a mutually supportive collegial relationship.

Reconnected with my values and principles around editing and coaching, did some envisioning work, and will have a draft of new website copy for my Writing Coaching, Editing Services and About Sione pages by Friday of this week.

How did you do with your writing this quarter? Have you started thinking about what's next yet?

This is a blog hop! Click here to get to other ROW80 participants' final Round 1 check-ins.

My face.

I don't know how to make it smaller.

About

Sione Aeschliman, LLC provides high-quality editing and coaching services at fair rates to support emerging and established writers in achieving their writing and publishing goals. You can email me at sioneaeschliman (at) gmail (dot) com or use the Contact Form below.